arbutus

I agree with Nigel, cutting coils off of a spring increases the spring rate (force required to compress the spring a certain distance) while reducing the initial force to lift the slide off the idle stop. The method I've used in the past was to turn a wooden dowel to just a bit larger than the spring's I.D. Slip the spring over the dowel by turning it in the direction that opens up the coils, then lock it in place by turning the other way. Clamp the dowel in a vise and then use a length of emery cloth pulled between both hands to remove spring material. This method slowly removes metal and reduces the chance of suddenly overdoing the grinding with an aggressive wheel. You may be surprised how fast this cuts down the wire thickness, too.

Take a look at the condition of the cylinder base gasket. On my '09 280, the gasket was deformed inwards under the right side transfer ports, creating an air leak. The bike was hard to start, but ran fairly well once fired up. I replaced the original paper gasket with a thicker metal composition gasket.

I'm sure you will do fine, this is also a good time to adjust the valve clearances, and change the coolant!

I was able to replace the water pump shaft and seals on my 2009 4t just by carefully unscrewing the shaft (24) from the gear (22). The gear will not fall into the engine. I used an adjustable "Crescent" wrench to grip the flat on the shaft, much better than the weak special Beta tool. Take care removing the seals, you do not want to damage the aluminium bores. Grease the seals and shaft before installing the new shaft. I used a set of long, narrow, needle nose pliers to hold the gear up enough to engage the threads of the gear and shaft. Of course, the engine will have to be dropped down-,remove exhaust pipe,separate carburettor from air cleaner, let the engine hang only on the swing arm bolt. Lock the crankshaft at TDC on compression stroke with the locking bolt, first remove it's copper crush washer. Remove the valve cover. Loosen the water pump shaft from it's gear, do not remove the shaft yet. Remove the cam chain adjuster. Remove the cam sprocket from the cam, then remove it from the chain. Tie a string or wire to the chain and lower it into the engine, the chain will stay on the crankshaft's sprocket. Slide the ball bearing (14) from the camshaft, then remove the camshaft. You can now unscrew the water pump shaft by stopping the gear from rotating with a straight bladed screw driver. Since I'm writing this from memory it would be best to consult the 4t Shop Manual that's available online. Take your time, I would allow about 6 hours to clean the bike and complete the work for the first time. Good luck. Cheers, Greg.

Item 8 is the fuel solenoid valve, it's held to the fuel tank/frame with a banjo bolt. That banjo bolt should have a nylon screen screwed into the end of it to filter the gasoline. On the side of the solenoid valve is a small lever that will rotate. One position is "Automatic" the other is "Manual", which is the bypass position. "Auto uses electricity from the bike's 12 Volt system to open the solenoid valve, which is only generated while the engine is running. If you need to open the fuel supply with a dead engine, use the "Manual" position. For example, when the bike is dropped and the engine has quit, all the gas may drain from the float bowl. On my 2009 "Auto" is up, "Manual" is down. Check your Owner's Manual for your year to be sure. Cheers.

One of my riding buddies said that he was suffering from PMS (Parked Motorcycle Syndrome), so we headed out for an afternoon spin. Lots of blowdowns this autumn/winter with El Nino feeding Pineapple Expresses our way. Not much snow at sealevel, but one riding area at 300m has 25cm, and more the higher you go. It feels like we fish are in a drying pond and our world is shrinking. AND IT"S ONLY JANUARY 1! Cheers, and Happy New Year, the sun will return.

I see that S3 lists a top fork clamp that actually tightens around the steering stem with a pinch bolt. Has anyone any experience with this item?

I purchased a used 2010 300 earlier this year. On this first ride, the indexing cam fell off of the shift drum, no damage, degreased the threads and reloctited. Then a couple of weeks ago it stopped shifting again. This time the weld on the shifter shaft for the pawl mechanism had cracked thtrough. Again no damage, TIG'ed back together, and back riding.

Did a forum search for "SKF" and got no results. We just replaced the original seals in my son's 2003 Sherco with the new and highly recommended SKF seals. Being thrifty, in the past I've just removed the originals,cleaned, greased and reinstalled them. The new SKF seals required very little force on the seal driver to install, just a firm push. The old seals had to be driven home with a slide hammer action. Has anyone else who has installed the SKF seals found them to be this easy? Did they remain oiltight? They appear to have a lot more stretch to the sealing lip that slides, the backup coil spring couldn't hurt either. It's the outside circumference of the SKF that seemed a bit undersized. Thanks, Greg.